According to Bexar County records filed Tuesday, missing Olmos Park realtor and mother Suzanne Clark Simpson’s husband, Brad Simpson, was indicted by a grand jury for felonies connected to her disappearance, including for her murder.
He was formally charged on multiple counts of tampering with evidence with the intent to impair an investigation.
He was scheduled for an examination trial on Monday, but it’s been canceled. Simpson remains in the Bexar County Jail. His bail is set at $2 million.
Simpson is facing serious time if convicted. One indictment carries a penalty of 5 to 99 years, another is 2 to 20 years and another is 2 to 10 years.
“We extend our deep sympathies to the family of Suzanne Simpson as we move forward in the pursuit of justice,” said Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales.
Brad Simpson’s brother, Barton Tinsley Simpson, shared a statement online shortly after the indictment asking for privacy for the family.
“We have faith in our criminal justice system and believe that the grand jury has done their sworn duty to review the evidence and determine that it is sufficient to move forward to trial,” he wrote. “… we ask him to accept responsibility and place himself at the mercy of the court. It is our sincere hope that through accountability, healing can begin for everyone affected by this devastating loss.”
Law enforcement has said it will continue the search for Suzanne Clark Simpson as Brad Simpson’s case progresses in the Bexar County district courts.
The Olmos Park real estate agent went missing nearly two months ago on Oct. 6.
The arrest warrant filed on Nov. 7 had originally been sealed for 30 days because officials said public disclosure of the affidavit may have harmed the case. But on Nov. 12, it was unsealed by the Bexar County Magistrate Clerk’s Office.
The 15-page affidavit lists the details of the investigation, and ends with the accusation that Simpson killed his wife on or about Sunday, Oct. 6.
According to the affidavit, surveillance footage at H-E-B of Brad Simpson’s truck at 12:33 a.m. Oct. 7 shows that the truck bed was “clear of any cargo … besides a large ice chest.”
Texas Rangers obtained surveillance footage that showed Brad Simpson dropped his 5-year-old daughter off at school on the morning of Oct. 7, while transporting two white trash bags and the ice chest in the bed of his black GMC truck.
The document alleges that after dropping his daughter off at school, at around 9 a.m., Simpson ordered food at Whataburger in Boerne. That surveillance video showed three white trash bags, a large, gray heavy-duty trash can, an ice chest, a “large bulky item wrapped and secured in a blue tarp” with a silver metal firewood rack placed on top “to conceal and weigh the tarp down,” the document states.
Due to its shape and size, and the fact that it was secured by a rope, Olmos Park Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division Lt. Hector Ruiz stated that there was an unknown object concealed within the blue tarp.
That same day at about 10 a.m., Texas Ranger Jesse Perez found video surveillance from a Home Depot in Boerne, showing Simpson making a cash purchase of two bags of cement, an orange Home Depot construction bucket with a lid, a box of heavy-duty trash bags, a Clorox bleach spray bottle and insect repellent, according to the document.
The affidavit details that surveillance shows Simpson randomly approached someone in the parking lot, who in interviews with law enforcement said he pointed Simpson to the Kendall County Solid Waste site, after Simpson asked “for directions to the nearest dump in Boerne.”
Records show Simpson turned his phone off after the purchase. Vehicle location data shows Simpson went to that site at 46 Spanish Pass Road in Boerne, the affidavit states, and video surveillance shows him driving away.
At 11 a.m., video surveillance shows him purchasing two gallons of water and putting gas in his truck at a gas station in Kendall County, according to the documents. The footage shows that the white trash bags were missing from the bed of his truck, but the blue tarp, firewood rack and trash can were still there, the document states.
The affidavit states that Simpson “changed footwear from black men’s sandals into dark colored, cowboy style boots” before driving into Bandera County, with the rack still on top of the blue tarp on the truck bed. He was in Bandera County for 13 minutes before returning to Kendall County, according to Texas Ranger Daniel McMillon.
The warrant states Simpson was back in Boerne by 1:41 p.m.; the blue tarp no longer visible, and the rack repositioned in the truck bed, according to video surveillance footage.
At 3:30 p.m., he was picking his daughter up from school, with only the ice chest and large trash can left in the truck bed, the document states. About an hour later, investigators allege Simpson was washing and cleaning his truck at a car wash.
The investigators also allege Simpson turned his phone on and off several times throughout the day to try to avoid detection.
The affidavit details that at school that day, the Simpson’s 5-year-old daughter told a school counselor she had seen her dad “push” and “physically hit” her mom on Oct. 6, and that her dad had “turned off her mother’s phone because they were fighting.”
“Dried cement splashes were later located in the rear passenger compartment of the vehicle to include in the truck bed,” the document states. Police also say they found evidence Simpson had the Clorox bottle in the rear passenger seat of the truck, and at the time he had been washing his car, had “only the ice chest with no other items that were observed in previous surveillance videos.”
The document states that stains found in Simpson’s truck during a search warrant later tested positive for his own blood.
Police said they found evidence of messages between Simpson and his business partner, James Vallee Cotter, on Oct. 8 at 4:30 p.m.
“If you’re in Bandera can you haul ass and meet me at your house?” and “I don’t have much time…” were messages Simpson sent Cotter, according to the affidavit.
“I will be there in 40 minutes,” Cotter responded, the document says.
“OK, make sure and leave all that shit into the pump house, especially the gun,” Simpson responded, according to the affidavit.
Hours later, at 8:31 p.m., Cotter texted Simpson, “Get over here!! I won’t tell anyone” and “You’re my brother.”
Hours before those texts were exchanged, Simpson had a phone conversation with Olmos Park Police Chief Fidel Villegas, in which he told him he had seen Suzanne Clark Simpson on the morning of Oct. 7, “asleep” in a separate room as he was leaving to drop his daughter off at school.
The affidavit said that statement “contradicted” a previous statement he made the night of Oct. 7, when Suzanne was reported missing, in which Simpson told officers he had not seen her.
Simpson was arrested on family violence charges on Oct. 9. The warrant details he had numerous lacerations and bruises on his hands and arms, didn’t look surprised or question why he was being arrested, and appeared unconcerned that his wife was missing, showing little to no emotion.
He requested a lawyer after being questioned about the physical altercation that happened between him and his wife on Oct. 6, and after telling police again that his wife had lost her phone at the H-E-B that night, the affidavit states.
The affidavit details that a “Find My” screenshot from Suzanne Clark Simpson’s 20-year-old daughter shows the last known time and location of her mother’s phone was listed at the Simpsons’ home in Olmos Park at 10:22 p.m. Oct. 6.
According to the affidavit, her phone “was suspended on Oct. 6 at 9:16 p.m. at the request of the subscriber” and that records show Simpson accessed the AT&T app at that same time, “contradicting” his statements about his wife losing her phone at H-E-B.
The affidavit details that police found “an indentation” on the wall at the bottom of the stairway at the Simpsons’ Olmos Park home that was “not previously there” during a search warrant executed by the Olmos Park Police Department and Texas Rangers on Oct. 9, in which police also found the box of white trash bags with red handles, which matched the ones in his truck.
During an Oct. 9 search at another property in Bandera, the affidavit details that Texas Rangers found a “burn site” with a burnt laptop and several phones.
Three phones were recovered from that burn pit. Detailed forensic evidence revealed two notes created the day before Simpson’s arrest, titled, “This next life” and “Last will and testament,” apologizing for physically assaulting his wife once in August 2023 and again on Oct. 6, according to the affidavit.
The document also states that in an Oct. 23 interview with Texas Rangers, Suzanne Clark Simpson’s personal banker said that in August, she had confessed she was being physically abused by Brad Simpson, and that he would regularly take her phone away.
Her banker also told Texas Rangers, “that Suzanne Simpson advised her that if she went missing, to look for her in a lake.”
The warrant details that police believe on Oct. 6 that Suzanne Clark Simpson left a party at The Argyle with her 5-year-old daughter and stopped at an H-E-B before arriving at their Olmos Park home.
Call records show she called a family friend to say she was coming over. She arrived at 9:25 p.m., video surveillance showed, and had also called her mom at 9:15 p.m. to tell her that Simpson had assaulted her and that she was in pain. That call lasted eight minutes, according to the affidavit.
Their neighbor across the street told police that he witnessed loud arguing and a physical struggle between the Simpsons after 10 p.m. that night.
According to the affidavit, she broke free from Simpson’s grasp and ran away. He ran after her and tried to grab her, but the neighbor lost sight of them. Then, the neighbor heard the screams from the wooded area across from his home.
The document states Simpson left the home an hour later and shut down his phone at 11 p.m. until the next day.
Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify the timeline of events, as outlined in the charging documents.
